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Carandiru
Metascore
71 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 28 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 28
  3. Negative: 0 out of 28
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  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    100
    A prison movie of unusual richness and jarring power.
  2. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    88
    Carandiru, which ends with actual footage of the prison being demolished in 2002, marks a terrific comeback for Babenco - it's the roughest picture of life behind bars since "Midnight Express."
  3. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: John Patterson
    80
    Babenco's kindly, concerned eye seeks out the humanity in even the worst of his characters, and by the time he re-creates the massacre, with shocking power and force, one has been equally captivated and appalled at the world he shows. The result is one of the richest prison movies in years.
  4. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Bill Gallo
    80
    The film splits the difference between the brutal reality of the cable-TV prison series "Oz" and the romanticized fantasy of "The Shawshank Redemption" and provides a vivid, well-rounded gallery of inmate portraits.
  5. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Crust
    80
    Carandiru is Babenco's fourth film set inside some type of incarceration facility and meshes his documentary style and fondness for realism with the escapism of storytelling found in "Kiss of the Spider Woman." It plunges us deep inside a corrupt system and its sincere empathy creates a stirring mix of emotions.
  6. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    80
    Exudes a throbbing flesh-and-blood intensity so compelling that it's impossible to avert your eyes.
  7. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    80
    It is Carandiru's ability to humanize its central characters ... that gives the movie its wrenching, tragic power
  8. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    80
    The movie is powerful, if numbing. What movie about a massacre isn't?
  9. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Stanley Kauffmann
    80
    No element in the story, or collection of stories, has much novelty: yet the picture grips, because we sense that the director clearly knows he is treating familiar material and forges ahead out of passion.
  10. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    80
    Long, grim, but utterly engrossing.
  11. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    78
    It has the resonant feel of myth, buoyed by simultaneously vicious and compassionate performances from the men on both sides of the bars.
  12. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    In a prison filled with vivid, Dickensian characters, several stand out. There is, for example, the unlikely couple of Lady Di (Rodrigo Santoro), tall and muscular, and No Way (Gero Camilo), a stunted little man. They are the great loves of each other's lives.
  13. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Harrowing, realistic, humanistic.
  14. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    75
    Searing and hypnotic docudrama.
  15. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    Harrowing but compassionate.
  16. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    75
    The warden implores the prisoners to relinquish their weapons, and out of the cells come flying a zillion blades of all sizes. In a Mel Brooks movie, this bit would be funny. Here, it sums up the chilling situation in five seconds.
  17. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    75
    Angry and tragic, Carandiru is finally, in its own way, uplifting.
  18. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    75
    Lays on the compassion a little thick, yet its heartfelt squalor stays with you.
  19. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    70
    The movie observes and dramatizes, yet seeks no overriding social moral.
  20. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    63
    Babenco does a better job with place than with people: His explosively overcrowded jail is a teeming tenement, which makes the inevitable climax feel, finally, like something real.
  21. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    63
    Stylistically, Carandiru is definitely less monochromatic than an "Oz" rerun.
  22. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    63
    A sprawling prison drama that seeks, by turns, to endear itself and then traumatize its audience.
  23. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)
    60
    A large, magnificent cast brings this story vividly to life, supported by superb art direction and technical contributions. Capped by Babenco's vigorous, often ferocious direction, the film is a towering achievement, offering an unforgettable portrayal of the lives and plight of the forgotten.
  24. Variety
    Reviewed by: Deborah Young
    60
    A low-structure, high-involvement Brazilian free-for-all destined to take its place among hellish prison films, Carandiru plants a fist in the viewer's stomach.
  25. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    50
    Director Hector Babenco's sentimental, unconvincing adaptation of Varella's book, is a soft, simplistic look at a tough, complicated subject.
  26. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    This film's rhythms suggest nothing so much as a weirdly macho telenovela, full of family drama, isn't-it-ironic humor and maudlin twists of cruel fate.
  27. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    50
    Babenco's hard work is undercut by his squarely theatrical notion of realism: Specifically, how did the touring company for "West Side Story" wind up in such an awful spot?
  28. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jessica Winter
    50
    Carandiru's every scene is cut from factory-issue prison-genre cloth to fit jailhouse stock characters.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. chitrav.
    8
    This is a movie which is a compelling depiction of humanity:who decides whom to judge and why ? Glad this prison is closed now but what about the international prison Guantanomo..three hundred Pakistanis alone there taken in connivance with the country's government!… Full Review »
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